Pastor Antoni Okoh was the former chief executive officer of T. J Okoh Nigeria Limited and also a major contractor with the Delta Steel Complex, Aladja. But no w, the story has changed and if any prophet has told him that he would one day be a pastor, he would have doubted it because at the tender age of 23, he has become a millionaire with three posh cars.

Today, Pastor Okoh, the General Overseer of Sovereign Word Church, Egbeda, Lagos, has dumped the money making business to serve in the Lord’s vineyard because he washealed miraculously, and since then, his passion for the work of God increased. " All the money I was making in my business became meaningless to me and I could not have peace. It eluded me, until I left for the work of God."

Background
I am Pastor Antoni Okoh of the Sovereign Word Church, Egbeda. I am a Fine Art graduate from Delta State University, Abraka. I opted to read the course in the university because I had the talent and it is an innate thing. I am married to Mrs. Luci Okoh and we have three lovely kids. I am the fifth child in the family of eight and was raised in a Catholic family, thus making me live a godly life. I was brought up in the police barracks because my father was an officer while my mother who was a retired headmistress came from a wealthy family. Being the only child, she inherited all that her mother left behind. My parents were strict and highly religious.

The testimony that changed my life
My story began when at the age of 13; I had terrible tuberculosis of the bones and blood that mad me bedridden for six months because it has advanced to a terrible condition. All the best doctors in Benin handled my case but all was in the vain and they all left me, having lost hope.

But one day, my immediate elder sister advised my mother to take me to an ongoing crusade organized by the late Bishop Idahosa; Rev. R.W. Shambach was invited to preach. My mother did, and that night I witnessed a lot of strange sensations in my body though my healing was not instantaneous.

After the crusade, Bro. Chris Oyakhilome, who was just a fellowship president then, gave me some healing tapes to be listening to, after which I got my miraculous healing exactly a week later. I call it miraculous healing because this was a young man that the best doctors have given up hope on his case. After one week, I was taken back to the specialist hospital for check up and the doctors confirmed that there was no sign of tuberculosis again.

Passion for the work of God
After the healing, I developed a serious passion for the work of God thus organizing fellowships from secondary school students who were my colleagues then. In my class 3, I already had over 100 students as my fellowship members and the name of the fellowship then was Christian Light Association and this continued until I got admission into the university. At the university, I joined Pastor Chris to organize a fellowship called Youth for Christ, which later transformed to Believers Love World after Pastor Chris left the school.

Major calling
My major calling is healing, teaching and ministering to the shattered. I have been in the ministry since I was young but I have been pasturing this church for the past nine years.

Pastors and publicity
I am one pastor that doesn’t like the way most of my colleagues flaunt their wealth anyhow, thus making them to lose focus. Unnecessary publicity is one thing I detest in a man of God. Even if we are to go on publicity, we should concentrate on the work of God not showing off our wealth, because that’s not what God has called us to do. Let me tell you that it’s not all pastors that are Christians. Take the late Pastor Bimbo for instance, she was a Christian and a mother, she was more than what people saw on TV.

Rating churches in Nigeria
Churches in Nigeria are doing so fine and the work of God is moving. People are now praying seriously. It was not like before when people were saying that our own is the best. The church in Nigeria is one of the best in Africa and this has actually made people to know what is good.

Most embarrasing moment
The most embarrassing moment of my life was when I owed an Alhaji some amount of money, which I used to roof my church. The daughter of the man embarrassed me in front of my congregation. Actually, the man sent his daughter to come and ask me for the money and the service was going on then.

The lady just walked straight to where I was preaching and sized my shirt and started shoutng at me to pay her father’s money; the whole congregation was dazed. It was not that I didn’t want to pay the money but things were difficult for me financially when I started the ministry.